House votes to slash $39 billion from food stamps

Bill would cut $4 billion every year over next decade

10:14 PM,
Sep. 19, 2013

House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., walks to vote on the House floor on Capitol Hill, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2013 in Washington. House Republican leaders scrambled Thursday to line up support in advance of a late-afternoon vote on legislation that would cut nearly $4 billion a year from the food stamp program, now used by 1 in 7 Americans.

Written by

Christopher Doering and Paul Singer
| USA Today

The House approved a Republican plan Thursday to cut food stamps by $39 billion during the next decade, setting up a showdown with Democrats over the program used by nearly 48 million low-income Americans.

The House voted 217-210 for the bill that cuts nearly twice as much from food stamps as a bill the House rejected in June. It is also far more than a Senate measure passed earlier this year that would trim about $4.5 billion in spending. The bill failed to draw the support of a single Democrat, many of whom have said the steep cuts would erode a key safety net depended upon by families with children, ...